Rengay Worksheets

The rengay form was invented in 1992 by Garry Gay, and was first written by Garry and Michael Dylan Welch. It consists of six thematic verses written in a pattern of A-3, B-2, A-3, B-3, A-2, B-3 (for two poets) or A-3, B-2, C-3, A-2, B-3, C-2 (for three poets), where letters represent the poets and numbers indicate the number of lines in each verse. The following two worksheets are presented here as a guide for writing your own rengay. Solo and six-person rengay are also possible, and could follow either of the following two formats. The key point to rengay is that all six verses should develop the same clear theme, such as “shelters” or the narrative of a baseball game. The more concrete the theme, the greater the clarity, but many excellent rengay also develop a secondary theme that might be more abstract or conceptual. For the two-line verses, be careful not to force a three-line poem into two lines. Read more about rengay on the Rengay Essays and read numerous rengay elsewhere on this website.